Elkan Lubliner to date,'" he said. "And when you get through with that,
Scheikowitz, write an 'ad' for an assistant cutter. We've got to get
busy on that Appenweier & Murray order right away."

CHAPTER THREE

A MATCH FOR ELKAN LUBLINER

MADE IN HEAVEN, WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF MAX KAPFER

"I wouldn't care if Elkan Lubliner was only eighteen even," declared
Morris Rashkind emphatically; "he ain't too young to marry B. Maslik's a
_Tochter_. There's a feller which he has got in improved property alone,
understand me, an equity of a hundred to a hundred and fifty thousand
dollars; and if you would count second mortgages and Bronix lots, Mr.
Polatkin, the feller is worth easy his quarter of a million dollars."

"Sure I know," Polatkin retorted. "With such a feller, he gives his
daughter when she gets married five thousand dollars a second mortgage,
understand me; and the most the _Chosan_ could expect is that some day
he forecloses the mortgage and gets a deficiency judgment against a
dummy bondsman which all his life he never got money enough to pay his
laundry bills even!"

"_Oser a Stueck!_" Rashkind protested. "He says to me, so sure as you are
sitting there, 'Mr. Rashkind,' he says, 'my dear friend,' he says,
'Birdie is my only _Tochter_. I ain't got no other one,' he says, '_Gott
sei Dank_,' he says; 'and the least I could do for her is five thousand
dollars cash,' he says, 'in a certified check,' he says, 'before the
feller goes under the _Chuppah_ at all.'"

"With a feller like B. Maslik," Polatkin commented, "it ain't necessary
for him to talk that way, Rashkind, because if he wants to get an
up-to-date business man for his daughter, understand me, he couldn't
expect the feller is going to take chances on an uncertified check
_oder_ a promissory note."

"That's all right, Mr. Polatkin," Rashkind said. "B. Maslik's promissory
note is just so good as his certified check, Mr. Polatkin. With that
feller I wouldn't want his promissory note even. His word in the
presence of a couple of bright, level-headed witnesses, which a lawyer
couldn't rattle 'em on the stand, _verstehst du_, would be good enough
for me, Mr. Polatkin. B. Maslik, y'understand, is absolutely good like
diamonds, Mr. Polatkin."

"All right," Polatkin said. "I'll speak to Elkan about it. He'll be back
from the road Saturday."

"Speak nothing," Rashkind cried excitedly. "Saturday would be too late.
Everybody is working on this here propos